Battle of Luthea
"I can't see a thing in these forests!" -501st Trooper The Battle of Luthea was a series of battles between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems on the forest planet of Luthea during the conflict that was named the Clone Wars. Prelude The planet of Luthea was a valuable planet to the Republic as it was one of very few planets who produced plastoid, which made up the body armor for a clone trooper. The Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) knew this, and after careful planning for strategy by CIS leaders, prepared an army of battle droids to invade the planet. The invasion was ready on 21 BBY. The Battle Breaking through A small Republic battle group was defending Luthea at the time when the CIS attacked. The Venator-Class Star Destroyers tried desperately to defend against the large force of CIS cruisers but were eventually overwhelmed. The CIS had been jamming the Republic's signals so they could not send word to the Republic about the incoming attack on Luthea, so they could easily steamroll through the planet for a while until the Republic noticed. The Invasion Battle Droids landed on the planet and began burning down Luthian villages and shooting up Luthians. The Luthians and small amounts of armed miners and clone troopers tried to put up a fight, but their small numbers were no match for the still increasing amount of droids landing on the planet. The CIS easily began pushing through with AATs and Corporate Alliance tank droids along with droid ground transport ships to get through the planet faster. They also used poison gas, which killed plants and massacred Luthians. A Republic Clone Trooper on the planet's surface finally was able to get a signal to the Republic and informed them of the attack on Luthea before getting killed directly after. Republic Defense The Galactic Republic, knowing Luthea to be an essential planet, sent in the 19th Nebula Corps and the 501st Legion in to deal with the attacking droid forces. They were given direct orders by the Jedi High Council themselves to try not to deal damage to the villages as their target was the droids, not the citizens of the planet they were trying to protect. Because of this, unless the Republic was fighting in the middle of the forest, they could only use EMP grenades (droid poppers) since they only affected droids. Speaking of the forest, it was pretty much a Star Wars Vietnam. Droids had been equipped with camo droid parts, but due to the fast reaction by the Republic, the clone defenders stuck out like sore thumbs in their white armor and sometimes clones got killed before even knowing there was danger. This was the first time clone troopers had fought in forests, so they didn't know how to deal with the enemy. Since the clone troopers really couldn't see the enemy, they accidentally even killed a few Luthians. Because of this, the first few battles seemed to be the the CIS's favor. Then, while the Republic was holding a trade city that had just come under attack, Luthians attacked the droids from behind, and since they knew the forests so well, they confused the droids and led some of them into traps. Knowing that the Luthians could help their cause since they knew the terrain unlike the clone troopers, the Republic gave the Luthians more advanced equipment such as body armor and blaster rifles. Using a few translators, the Republic learned about the forest from the Luthians, giving the clone troopers more knowledge of the surrounding areas. After this, Republic wins became more frequent in the skirmishes and battles on Luthea. Eventually, even though the droids could have kept going, the CIS believed the battles were getting too costly and they pulled droids out of Luthea. Aftermath Although a Republic victory, clone trooper deaths were estimated to have had 11,000 casualties (To put that into perspective, a Corps had about 36,000 troopers) along with 20% of the original Luthian's population who were executed by the droid forces. The Republic learned from their mistakes on this forest planet and they did much better in the Battle of the forest and jungle planet of Kashyyyk years later. Participants Jedi and the Republic Survivors * Jedi General Alaric Marnel * Jedi Commander Talia Rethena (Severely Wounded) * Clone Marshal Commander CC-3578 "Hall" * Clone Captain CT-2986-35 "Tris" * Clone Lieutenant CT-6543-21 "Countdown" * Clone Second Lieutenant CT-93/5493 "Pow" * Jedi General Anakin Skywalker * Jedi Commander Ashoka Tano * Clone Captain CT-7567 "Rex" * Clone Trooper CT-5385 "Tup" * Clone Trooper CT-5555 "Fives" * Clone Trooper CT-5567 "Jesse" * Clone Trooper Dogma * Clone Corporal Hardcase * Clone Sergeant CT-1119 "Appo" * Clone Medic CT-6116 "Kix" * Clone Trooper "Koho" * At least 35,000 other clone troopers * Chief Jurja (Luthian Chief) * At least 15,000,000 Luthians Victims * Clone Lieutenant CT-984 "Daworir" * One Unidentified Jedi * At least 11,000 Clone Troopers * At least 3,000 naval clones * One Admiral * Three Naval Captains * At least 3,800,000 Luthians The Confederacy of Independent Systems Survivors * General Grievous (briefly visited) * All droid leaders who planned attack (briefly visited) * 150,000 B1s and B2s Victims * 100,000 B1s * 30,000 B2s * Some random droid commanders * At least 10,000 naval droids * Unnamed Admiral Behind the Scenes The Battle of Luthea followed a similar story to Vietnam (Except the people who didn't know the forests won instead) Category:Battle Category:Battle of Luthea Category:Luthea Category:Clone Wars Category:Grand Army of the Galactic Republic Category:Confederacy of Independent Systems Category:19th Nebula Corps Category:501st Legion